Johny Pitts

[1] He is of mixed-race heritage (his father Richie was from Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York and was in the 1970s soul band The Fantastics, who had a top 10 hit in 1971 with "Something Old, Something New"), while his mother is English with some Irish ancestry.

He is a keen musician and member of the Bare Knuckle Soul collective, who have supported the likes of Omar, the Pharcyde, Plantlife and Alice Russell and garnered acclaim from Giles Peterson, Zane Lowe and Trevor Nelson, as well as appearing on the Norman Jay Good Times 7 compilation.

[8] He was previously presenter for Escape from Scorpion Island, Roar and All Over the Place,[9] He also had stints on CD:UK, hosting with Lauren Laverne and Myleene Klass, and on Blue Peter and MTV.

[10] Pitts collaborated with the novelist Caryl Phillips and Art Angel on a photographic essay exploring immigration and the River Thames for the BBC/Arts Council's The Space, and founded the website www.afropean.com, which is part of the Guardian newspaper's "Africa Network", and the ENAR Foundation award-winning "Afropean Culture" page.

[11] His photography has been featured on The New York Times Lens Blog and the front covers of the Journal of Postcolonial Writing and Harvard University's Transition Magazine.